Let It Out or Let It Go? The Science of Stress (Plus Tools That Can Help)
Authors: Therabody Scientists: Michelle Darian, MS, MPH, RD, LDN; Tim Roberts, MSc; Rachelle Reed, PhD, MS, ACSM-EP
Expert insights: Duncan Simpson, PhD, CMPC: Director of the Teevens Center for Peak Performance at Dartmouth College and Mental Performance Expert.
Between deadlines at work, children's science projects (how are they always last-minute?), visiting in-laws, and deciding what to eat for dinner every night, stress is going to happen. And that’s ok. It’s how you react (and recover) from that stress that counts.
In tense moments, it’s tempting to resort to venting as a quick way to blow off steam. But is that actually effective? And does it work for long-term stress management? (Hint: it doesn’t).
We tapped the experts to break down what happens if venting and “letting it out” is your primary form of stress relief, how to find resiliency during stressful scenarios, and the science behind how one simple tool can help you do both.
Why does stress exist?
Stress is your body's built-in alarm system, designed to help you respond quickly to threats, challenges, and new stimuli.
When you face an immediate stressor (like a looming deadline or being chased by a bear), your body releases hormones that prepare you for action. Cortisol and adrenaline sharpen your focus, increase your heart rate, and create energy. This is normal and, in short bursts, actually helpful, so you can meet a deadline or outrun the bear.
The issue is that this temporary reaction can become ingrained, leaving your body and mind in a constant state of vigilance, even when there's no real stressor.
Over time, unmanaged stress leaves you in a constant state of overstimulation. Over time, this can impact your mental and physical health. It can lead to elevated blood pressure levels, high blood sugar, increased fat storage, and even muscle breakdown. Overall, it doesn’t just keep you stressed, it raises the risk of chronic conditions. [1]
This makes it all the more important to choose strategies that help you manage stress and build resilience to it long-term.
Letting it out
Imagine your kitchen on a hectic evening: The stove is cranked up, steam’s rising, and something’s boiling over. What’s one of the first things you do? Open a window or turn on the fan. You let the hot air out. It’s not the final fix, but it’s a quick and easy release.
When emotions run high, venting can offer that same immediate relief. “Unstructured venting can feel cathartic in the short term,” says Duncan Simpson, PhD, CMPC, and Mental Performance Expert. “But over time, it is often maladaptive because it rehearses the problem and strengthens stress-related neural circuits rather than resolving them.”
In other words, if all we ever do is vent to blow off steam (without addressing the heat source), we stay in the same cycle of tension and reactivity.
Simpson explains, “The more we mentally replay a situation with the same emotional intensity, the more we strengthen patterns of rumination and escalation, rather than developing healthier coping responses.”
When venting spills over without limits (whether through complaining, lashing out, or constant repetition), it doesn’t just keep us stuck. “If expressed in hostile, aggressive, or socially inappropriate ways,” Simpson warns, “venting can also become destructive — damaging relationships, weakening social support, and ultimately worsening long-term well-being.”
A chronic cycle of negative thought patterns and rumination has been shown to impact brain health by reducing brain volume in key areas like the hippocampus (the area of the brain responsible for memory, learning, and emotion). This further impacts your stress resilience and increases susceptibility to feelings of anxiety and depression. [2] And rumination can even increase blood pressure. [3]
Remember that venting is a two-way process. A listener is also involved. So habitual venting can also erode relationships. It may overwhelm friends or partners, reduce empathy, and reinforce a sense of powerlessness rather than encouraging meaningful change.
Simpson notes that venting can still be a helpful practice “if it is time-limited, occurs within a psychologically safe relationship, and transitions toward constructive appraisal or action, such as asking, What’s in my control?”
This can look like adopting habits and strategies that restore balance and build long-term resilience.
Letting it go
Being able to cope with stress and let it go is crucial for overall health. “Stress has a pro-inflammatory effect throughout the body,” says Therabody Scientific Advisory Board member Pamela Peeke, MD, MPH, FACP, FACSM. “With increased stress, you have increased levels of cortisol (the stress hormone), which is associated with norepinephrine or adrenaline. This activates your fight-or-flight response.”
One way to let stress go is through mindfulness practices. “Mindfulness cultivates meta-attention, which is the ability to notice the space between stimulus and response,” says Simpson. This lets us “select intentional, skillful actions rather than defaulting to automatic reflexes,” he notes.
This might look like pausing before sending a frustrated text or taking a deep breath before reacting in a high-pressure moment. This pause creates a much-needed buffer space between your emotions and your reaction.
These simple practices can become your brain’s default response when practiced over time, teaching your brain to pause and reflect before reacting.
Mindfulness also produces physiological benefits. Simpson says that “practices such as slow breathing, posture adjustment, and muscle release down-regulate arousal and activate parasympathetic pathways, which support recovery, clarity of thought, and more adaptive decision-making.”
For example, Simpson says “a simple and effective routine might include a slow exhale breathing pattern (four seconds in and six seconds out), a brief body scan to check tension, writing down one concise sentence to define the problem, and a single actionable next step.”
With any routine, the right tools can make it easier to incorporate stress management techniques into your daily life.
A tool that can help you let it go: Theragun® Sense Gen 2
One tool that is especially primed to help you let stress go (physically and mentally) is the Theragun Sense.
Massage guns deliver percussive therapy and are well-known in a fitness context to treat sore muscles after a tough workout to help you recover. This therapy has also been shown to promote relaxation and stress relief. Percussive therapy uses rapid bursts of pressure that reach your muscle tissue, stimulating the nervous system to release endorphins, those feel-good hormones that naturally reduce stress and improve your sense of well-being. [4, 5]
In stressful scenarios, even just a few minutes of percussive therapy can help you pause and reach a more mindful state. In fact, the Theragun has been scientifically shown to improve heart rate variability (a key marker of resilience to stress) by 25% after just one session. When you repeat this habit (or any other stress-relieving technique) over time, your mind and body can become more resilient and adapt to stressful situations.
More strategies to help you let it go
Mindfulness helps you create mental space to pause and reflect. Building resilience often includes a toolkit of several strategies that you can reach for when things get tricky. Here are a few things to try:
- Practice breathwork: Breathwork can help bring you from a stressed state to a more relaxed one in seconds. As Simpson mentioned, try a breathing pattern with a slow exhale: four seconds in and six seconds out. [6]
- Get some movement in: Exercise is one of the most effective strategies to bring down stress levels. Throw on music with gentle rhythms and go for a walk, run, or pick up heavy weights. If a yoga flow or a Pilates class is more your speed, schedule a session. Even a 20-minute workout can help bring you back to center. [7]
- Prioritize sleep: Poor sleep and stress can create a never-ending cycle — stress disrupts sleep, and sleep deprivation makes you more reactive to stress the next day. Aim for 7-9 hours of sleep each night. Some tips that can help: keep a consistent bedtime and wake-up time, limit screentime before bed, and wind down with relaxing activities to recover from the day. [8]
- Hang out with a friend: Social connection and spending time with supportive people help to release feel-good hormones that can counter some of the stress you’re feeling. Remember, try to keep venting time-limited and transition to action. [9]
The beauty of these strategies is that they work both individually and together. You might use a Theragun and breathwork for in-the-moment relief, prioritize sleep for long-term resilience, and meet with friends when you've had time to process — tackling stress from multiple angles.
Key takeaways
- While venting can offer short-term relief, it can reinforce stress and emotional reactivity.
- Mindfulness techniques support long-term resilience by calming the nervous system, improving emotional regulation, and helping you fully let go of stress.
- The Theragun Sense Gen 2 uses percussive therapy to make stress relief easy and effective, helping you to relax and reset.
- Try using evidence-based mindfulness strategies together when stress arises, including breathwork and phoning a friend.
- Inflammation: The Common Pathway of Stress-Related Diseases
- Neuroplasticity and depression: Rewiring the brain's networks through pharmacological therapy (Review)
- Rumination as a Mediator of Chronic Stress Effects on Hypertension: A Causal Model
- The mechanisms of massage and effects on performance, muscle recovery and injury prevention
- Massage increases oxytocin and reduces adrenocorticotropin hormone in humans
- Brief structured respiration practices enhance mood and reduce physiological arousal
- Influence of Regular Physical Activity and Fitness on Stress Reactivity as Measured with the Trier Social Stress Test Protocol: A Systematic Review
- Impaired sleep after bedtime stress and worries
- Social connection as a critical factor for mental and physical health: evidence, trends, challenges, and future implications
